Things Bosses Wish They Could Tell Employees | Hacker News Reader

Things Bosses Wish They Could Tell Employees

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53 pointsColinWright42 comments

Here are some things that I wish I could have shared with some of my people in the past:

1. I really cannot explain why there seems to be no long-term direction, and I'm leading you and the rest of the team on completely unrelated initiatives every single quarter. But I suspect it's related to the earnings calls.

2. I'm not thrilled either that there is no money this year for any office's annual Christmas party, despite the fact that the executive team just received huge bonuses.

3. Yes, it makes no sense that a company this small actually owns a private jet.

4. There's a very strong likelihood that in two weeks the company will announce an across-the-board 50% paycut for all employees for a period of four weeks, just so the company can meet some kind of payroll. And you and many, many others will of course resign. I, on the other hand, like a moron, will not resign.

5. You're absolutely correct. The CEO is quite possibly insane.

#4 ... what. I take it that goes hand in hand with #5.

Best thing I ever saw a boss actually tell their employees was the budget breakdown for the coming year (CEO speaking to all 30 staff, so obviously not a publicly listed company).

Staff saw themselves charging out $100/hour and being paid $40/hour, and felt they were being ripped off by the owners. First item on the budget was a rent bill of almost a million dollars, secured personally by the owners.

Changed the whole money dynamic in the business, as suddenly everyone understood that the cost of running a business was more than salaries and the occasional photocopier repair.

What? $1m for 30 workers?

180sq ft per worker (average) * 30 = 5400sq ft. so $185.19/sq ft

Please tell me that either: it was used for more than just office space (so it was like 50,000sqft), or that it was plated in gold. Because if this was normal 5400sqft office space, then I'm pretty sure he lied.

For comparison, I'm in Denver. Office space averages $20/sqft[0].

Edit: found this article: 17 most expensive places to rent office space[1]. For $185/sqft, you would have to be in the most expensive place in nearly the most expensive building in the US.

[0] http://www.metrodenver.org/metro-denver-economy/monthly-summ...

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-places-for-off...

I rounded some of the figures, so for the sake of accuracy:

[1] They had 32 staff, and were planning to add 5-6 more and have the ability to add 10-12 more if they wanted

[2] It was a fairly nice office - not gold plated, just really spacious (multiple meeting spaces, kitchen, showers, library etc)

[3] The rent was closer to $850Kpa than $1M - again, rounding

[4] They signed their lease in the middle of a commercial property drought

Factor those in with your average sq ft per worker and I think it gets closer to $100/sq ft. I couldn't tell you the actual square footage - you may be right that they were paying above the odds; she (CEO was a woman) would argue that it was worth it for the location, the cultural elements of spacious working conditions, and the capacity for future growth.

[Edit: I also changed the charge out rates and salaries, to de-identify the client and because they were beside the point of the story.]

The micromanaging comment near the end demonstrates that he is, for all he thinks otherwise, at best a mediocre boss. Why? Well average bosses try to bring their worst performers up to par. Great bosses try to improve their best performers to be even better.

It turns out that, for effort put into someone, you can get about the same percentage improvement. But 10% more of a star results in a superstar. 10% more of crap is still not good.

I'm going to steal that :-)

btilly already stole it from someone else. I've heard it in a dozen places. MIGHT be Peter Drucker .. ?

For the record, I paraphrased First, Break All The Rules, and the way it was presented there makes me suspect that it was reasonably original to them.

Hm. For sales anyway. For the assembly line, the weakest link is absolutely the critical point to address. Etc.

Absolutely true, it depends on your circumstances.

However take something that sounds like a step in an assembly line. Data entry. One of the examples in First, Break All The Rules was a data entry group that took the woman who had the highest data entry speed (and also significantly lower error rates) and worked with her to see if they could do anything to improve her work, or to replicate her abilities.

In the end she sped up considerably to what they would have thought previously to be an utterly impossible speed, with even lower error rates, and several other people on her unit wound up with data entry rates that exceeded her initial already stellar levels.

The fact that a job is simple and boring does not mean that it can't be improved. And the people who both have the most potential to be improved, or to improve it are generally the people who already are best at it.

True, but still not an assembly line. That example was piecework, which has its own pattern.

I wish there was an opposite post entitled "Things Employees Wish They Could Tell Bosses," but it would probably just be misconstrued as whining.

Sometimes, whining is a good thing. It brings real, honest feelings to the surface. Of course, as an employee, if you don't feel like you're being listened to, you tend to stop volunteering ideas.

to be fair, a lot of this post came across as whining too.

People who accuse others of "whining" are usually doing the same. They're expressing indignation at the possibility that the other side might have standing in some kind of negotiation.

The technique is to divert attention away from what is being said by complaining about how it is being said.

Should be retitled "Things Bosses wish their employees believed about them".

I'm glad to work at a place where these issues are moot, but the typical company seems to operate under the mantra: "The floggings will continue until morale improves". Oddly, morale never improves.

I have a feeling that if bosses acted in a way that made them like them that the rest of the issues would go away.

Government had to instill the productivity benefits of 40 hour work weeks in law before companies would believe it. Most their businesses are failing because of their own policies and refusal to adopt new methods that would solve their problems, instead they keep doing the same thing, and getting the same result. (And then blame their employees for that result)

No, the government didn't have to force the 40 hour work week, as business, in particular, Henry Ford, found the benefits through studies he conducted at his factories. He found that productivity dropped after 40 hours of work per week, 8 hour per day.

Henry Ford also found that his labor expenses dropped (specifically, training costs) when he raised the typical wages to twice the industry average (to a whole $5/day!). He paid his employees twice the going rate, and worked them half as hard in order to make more profit. The greedy bastard!

(http://www.worklessparty.org/timework/ford.htm)

A single instance doesn't demonstrate an industry trend. At the time the US made those labor laws what was the trend in the industry?

If anything, this demonstrates the stubbornness of many businesses. Despite seeing ample evidence of success by a peer they tend to ignore it and continue the old ways.

True that a single instance doesn't demonstrate an industry trend, much less a trend in general. However, Henry Ford did have thousands of employees, and does provide some indication to human motivation. However, that was in the early 1900s in the US. Human motivational factors in the early 2000s may be quite that different.

I seem to remember 40 hrs was a compromise - a 4-day work week was proposed, and job-sharing was proposed. President compromised on a federal standard 40-hr work week.

The article missed:

I found an eager soul in a foreign country with similar skills for less than half your salary.

And: when I walk down the aisle and hear browsers clicking as I approach, I DO know you were on Facebook.

What if I was on GitHub, looking at the kind of software the boss doesn't see the importance in using/writing?

Sometimes, "goofing off" is actually your employee preparing for a future job at a different company. Maybe even his/her own.

I've worked at several companies that went under; each because of internal mis-management. Even in the current economy, its been clearly poor decision-making.

At every company, the company culture came from, and reflected, the top. If you don't like the company, look in the mirror. Actually, that's what the company is for the execs, a mirror.

> You don’t have to lower your voice and pretend to be working really hard when I walk by.

Not quite. There is a second order effect here and that is letting others know that the boss knows that goofing off is ok sometimes.

That's a very important point. The boss might personally agree and not care (as long as work is being done), but they might not want to show or make that explicit to others that they allow that. So if you goof off in an obvious way in front of others and the boss is present he will be forced act to tell you to stop it or worse he'll make a new company policy about goofing so as not to seem like he is a bad boss how lets others waste time.

Always be very careful about putting the management on the spot and forcing them to act. That is how really thick rule and guide books end up creating.

I feel like in many companies that I've worked for that I'm sure these are the cases but the sentiments never trickle down to me and therefore I take them as myths. I know it would be awesome to receive market pay, a great work environment, and be respected but I understand that there's a business to be run and that it's difficult to juggle all of those balls at the same time.

This leads me to another question regarding market pay: if an employer wants to pay you market pay and it's currently lagging is it bad practice to be proactive about compensation increases? Or is it a smarter business decision to milk the arbitrage for all it's worth? I understand that this is potentially a bad idea--once the increase is in effect then it's generally permanent. Pay rarely is elastic in the opposite direction.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you're not there to do you boss a favour and he's not giving you a job to do you a favour (that doesn't mean you can't, or shouldn't, be nice to each other, and do each other favours - but it's more of a long-term view of the situation).

Market pay is whatever you can make someone pay you. If your current employer can't pay you more, either you're not producing enough value, or the value you're producing is being inequitably shared with others in the organisation. Very often in engineer-driven, but non-engineer-led business, this could mean a too big or over-paid sales force. Both is a sign of inefficiency.

Chances are if you are on good terms with your boss, you can explain this to them. If they still can't give you a raise, explain that the situation compels you to dip your feet in the water (ideally, you've already done this as the conversation has the potential to sour the relationship with your boss).

As always, pull a patio11 and make sure you can articulate the value you're adding in terms of the money you bring in - this always comes easy to sales people (because, well, it is easy - they physically bring the cheques into the building). You've never just refactored component X. You've refactored component X which allowed your team to deliver high-value feature Y to the client, which you believe was brought up as a deciding factor in the contract renegotiations.

DON'T EVER tell your boss you're compelled to dip your feet in the water.

1. If you ask us for a payrise, we have to weigh the cost of the payrise vs the risk you WILL leave to get one somewhere else. We KNOW that if we turn you down, there's a chance you're going to be looking elsewhere.

2. By telling us you're dipping your foot, you've essentially given your notice. You just haven't told us when you're leaving. As of right now, you're not going to get the same level of attention and I'm looking for your replacement.

2b. If you don't tell us you're dipping your foot in the water, but we can't give you a pay rise, you'll get more attention and you'll get anything else we can possibly give you. We might give you a nicer desk, or replace your PC before anyone else's, or take you out for coffee more often.

Buying a new desk/computer or increasing amenities is a short-term solution. He will still be looking for the better salary.

Depending on the situation that is probably ok with some people. I think a lot of it would come down to quite a few variables.

I can't think of any clear examples but I'm sure there are cases to be made.

DON'T EVER tell your boss you're compelled to dip your feet in the water.

Yes. This is probably the #1 case of high-performer termination: suspected flight risk. Nothing gets you fired faster than indicating that you might be interviewing elsewhere.

I'm firing you now because you might leave later is a fantastic indication of shitty management. It's a last ditch attempt at lording power over you.

Everybody moves on at some time. Management doesn't have to act like children about it.

I think what was being described might be more akin to management seeking to hire a replacement before you leave and they are caught with their pants down.

If they're at least somewhat clueful, they know that a high performer's position (by virtue of the high performance, if nothing else) is critical. They may not be happy, but they may do their best to cover the anticipated gap. And some people argue that some management sees interviewing or "looking around" as an incontrovertible sign that, sooner or later, that employee is leaving. Or could leave. And they don't want that risk.

P.S. OT, but I'm really tired of LinkedIn and others' heavy-handed Javascript dependencies for blog entries and articles (whichever this one is; I didn't enable scripting) -- essentially for static text.

> 2. By telling us you're dipping your foot, you've essentially given your notice. You just haven't told us when you're leaving. As of right now, you're not going to get the same level of attention and I'm looking for your replacement.

I must say that I don't really understand this one. Anyone could get fed up and leave. Is the person who is up-front and honest with you, and indicates a desire to stay really more likely to subsequently leave than the rest of them?

Why would a boss wish they could tell employees this stuff instead of just actually telling them?

Articulation.

This article picks a bunch of things and puts good words around them. I just had a conversation with one of my employees that touched on a pile of these issues so I sent him this article as a better way of articulating how important he is to me.

Managerial mystique, or the art of making decisions without explaining them, because the lack of explanation projects authority.

Good boss: "I need you to be in at 9:00 because, even though there's no need for you to work specific hours, this office environment is ridiculous and gossipy and people will think less of our team if people come in later, and that means we have less autonomy in hiring. I'd be happy to let you work on whatever you want from 9 to 11, but I really need you to be in the door at 9:00, and if you can't do that, then we'll have to discuss moving you to another team."

Typical management theory says that this is bad because you're making what you have the authority to demand a negotiation instead, so more common is this...

Asshole manager: walks over to your desk. "I need you to be in at 9." Walks away.

I have had to be in by 4:30 am literally because the ship was sailing. I worked for a Marine colonel who told me to come in whenever I wanted so long as I got to meetings and did the work. 10 years later I still run into people who ask me if I hated working for him as much as they did. I have had mandatory work hours that I had to log (no more than 80 hours a week). I have had a job that was embarrassingly easy and all I had to do was but my meetings on a group calendar (Outlook ruined the experience).

This things don't matter. What you are doing with your life matters. Are you still trying to change the world?

Looks like LinkedIn is down at the moment.

Maybe I'm a really bad boss, or just stupid... But why can't he tell this to his employees?

Ah, some propaganda to start the morning.

"Don't click on linkbait."

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